On July 28, 2018, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) held the inception meeting for its special policy study on Global Climate Governance and China’s Role in Beijing. Ministry of Ecology and Environment representatives, CCICED Secretariat members, Chinese and international leads of the project, a special advisor of CCICED, and the council’s donors and partners discussed research topics and the focus of the project.

This is one of the special policy studies of CCICED’s special action—Global Environmental Governance and Ecological Civilization. Wang Yi, Vice President of the Institutes of Science and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will lead the Chinese project team, while Zou Ji, President of Energy Foundation China, and Kate Hampton, CEO of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation will co-lead the international team. Through high-level dialogue, model simulation, and case studies, this project aims to propose the vision, mid- and long-term goals, and possible pathways for China in combating climate change; explore the co-benefits of climate change mitigation, environmental improvements, socio-economic development, as well as ecological civilization; provide solutions for better global climate governance; and help China honor its Paris commitments.

At the meeting, experts and project team members agreed that the main research tasks should include the impact of the reshuffled Chinese cabinet on climate change policies, contributions and leadership of China in global climate governance, and China’s long-term strategy in tackling climate change. The participants also identified the near-term research focus of the project: it should grasp the opportunities in the current global governance trend and investigate the impact of the recent cabinet restructuring on China’s climate policies and international cooperation, as well as China’s role in global climate governance.